Charges fill direct mail in 50th District race

Wednesday

Aug 2, 2017 at 1:00 AM

Rudi Keller @CDTCivilWar

Direct mail attacks flooding mailboxes in the 50th Missouri House District portray Democratic candidate Michela Skelton as an atheist backed by radical University of Missouri professors and Republican Sara Walsh as a rubber stamp for Gov. Eric Greitens and the favors he wants to bestow on secret donors.

The final push is on for Tuesday’s election. Direct mail will consume most of the spending in a race where turnout is expected to be low. It is the most effective way to reach voters in such a race and the images being used give clues to what polling shows voters either like or dislike.

The Missouri Republican Party put out one direct mail piece promoting Walsh with a picture of President Donald Trump filling one side. Skelton uses photos of Walsh with Greitens in her attack pieces.

Two pieces from the GOP — which has reported spending $6,953 supporting Walsh — use the controversy over the November 2015 protests at MU and former assistant professor Melissa Click to attack Skelton. One mail piece says Skelton is “funded by MU professors who defended Melissa Click.” Another states she is "backed and funded by liberal professors at the University of Missouri who expressed support for ConcernedStudent1950 and Black Lives Matter protests on campus that led to decline in MU enrollment, lost tuition revenue and job cuts.

The charge is based on $100 from Theodore Koditschek, a professor emeritus of history, and $50 from Elizabeth Chang, a professor of English, GOP Executive Director Austin Stukins wrote in an email. With 114 other faculty members, they signed a December 2015 letter supporting Click. Chang, Stukins wrote, "liked" an official MU Facebook posting for a December 2014 Black Lives Matter gathering.

Koditschek has donated $350 in all and is listed in other donations as unemployed. Skelton has raised $98,187 since the campaign began in January and reported 1,452 donations.

"They are just inflammatory distractions intended to not get our people talking about real things, like education, health care or decent jobs for our community,” Skelton said.

The mail from the Republican Party is being produced independently of Walsh's campaign, Stukins wrote. The party is free to spend as much as it wants as long as it does not coordinate efforts with the campaign. Party donations to campaigns are subject to the $2,600 limit.

Walsh is a member of the Republican State Committee, which controls the account being used on her behalf.

"Sara Walsh and her campaign committee have been firewalled and excluded from any funding, messaging, or strategic decisions made in this race by the Missouri Republican Party," Stukins wrote.

Democratic State Committee members have run for the Missouri House with the support of the state Democratic Party, Stukins wrote.

Two negative mail pieces from Skelton tie Walsh to Greitens. One declares that “On Healthcare, Taxes and More, Sara Walsh isn’t on our side,” the other that “Sara Walsh would be a rubber stamp for Eric Greitens and Special Interests.”

Both focus on the legislation passed in a special session creating low electric rates for companies proposing to build metal smelters in southeast Missouri. If the manufacturers locate in the state and the rates are too low for Ameren to cover its costs, the difference can be shifted to residential and other commercial customers.

Walsh has not directly endorsed the legislation.

“I support the governor’s effort to create jobs,” Walsh said in May. “When I am in the legislature, that is when I will vote.”

Walsh did not return calls seeking comment for this article.

Skelton said Walsh is trying to straddle the issue so she doesn’t offend anyone.

“She hasn’t taken a strong position on anything, yet the Republican Party is speaking for her on all her mailers,” Skelton said.

The final fundraising reports of the campaign were filed Monday. Skelton extended her lead in donations over Walsh, taking in $23,462 from July 1 to July 27 compared to $6,645 for Walsh.

Skelton’s report lists 397 donations during the period, averaging $57.10. One donor, the Carpenters’ Union political action committee, gave $2,600, the largest allowed by law. Two other donors, former state Rep. Chris Kelly and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, each donated $1,000.

Walsh’s report shows 20 donations, averaging $332.25. Her largest donations during the period were from Paul Scheetz of Hallsville, business manager at Industrial & Petroleum Environmental Services, Inc., who gave $1,500, and three donors who each gave $1,000 — the Cooper County Republican Central Committee, Associated Industries of Missouri and State Farm Insurance agents political action committee.

Along with Republican Party spending, others making independent expenditures in the race include the House Republican Campaign Committee, which has spent $6,550 opposing Skelton, the Moniteau County Democratic Club, which has spent $1,487 supporting Skelton, and Missouri Right to Life, which has spent $2,111 on Walsh’s behalf.

The attacks on Skelton’s religious belief is based on a comment she made in 2010 on a Facebook posting by a St. Louis couple studying religion. They had posted they would pray for a week to see if it made a difference in their religious feelings.

“Seeing as I pray to no gods of any kind, I can't pray for you,” Skelton wrote. “However, I hope your 'experiment' is insightful.”

Dragging up the seven-year-old comment is another attempt to distract voters, Skelton said. She is currently a member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Columbia, where she attends services with her husband and children, she said.

The largest direct mail piece is a four-page effort from the Missouri Republican Party with three pages of positive accolades for Walsh and a “compare the candidates” on the fourth page.

The first issue listed, “Missouri Native” states Walsh “is from Missouri” while Skelton “only recently moved to Missouri.” Neither is a Missouri native. Walsh was born in Torrance, Calif., and moved to Missouri as a child. Skelton was born in Alabama to an Air Force career officer and moved to Missouri in 2010 to attend Washington University. She moved to Central Missouri in 2013.

Stukins defended use of the word native. Walsh has lived in the state for a long time, he wrote, and "she is a native Missourian in all ways germane to the voters."

Few of the GOP attacks have anything to do with the race itself, Skelton said.

“This is a race about local issues and what we can do locally here in Missouri,” she said.